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full moon

Today I, Zeb the Duck, and the 6 human women are going to our home for the next two weeks. The women are volunteering with the British organization, Ripple Africa. We are riding north in two cars for most of the day. Leaving Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, we will be a little south of Mzuzu, Malawi on the shore of Lake Malawi at Nkhata Bay. Here is the map of Malawi.

Malawi in Southern Africa

While stopping for fuel, we admire this lady and her bright dress.

Pretty lady with colorful dress

Isn’t she pretty? I think she is. While riding, we saw signs announcing that we were in a goat group area. So, we asked what this meant. Our driver told us that Heifer International gave some families a few goats. The families cannot kill and eat the goat. They use the milk, sell the extra and let the goats reproduce. The families then give extra goats to another family.

Many goats.

When the village has enough goats, the extra goats are given to another village. This is a great way to give people a start and let them help themselves and their neighbors. Now we know what a goat group is. We like it. We are now at our new home. This is our building.

Where we live

My room is the door on the left. Each of the rooms is for two women. Inside my room I notice the mosquito netting over the beds.

Our room, with mosquito netting over beds

This is necessary to help prevent malaria, from mosquito bites. There is always the chance of malaria, but this is not the main season for mosquitos. However, we are all taking daily pills to avoid malaria. We will eat our meals here.

This is where we eat

We have a great view of Lake Malawi from our dining area.

Lake Malawi

Of course we want to walk on the beach.

Canoe by our beach on Lake Malawi

I love this canoe. As you remember from yesterday’s map, we are in the tropics, between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, so there are many wonderful green tropical plants.

Love tropical plants

There is no electricity here, so our meals are cooked on a wood burning stove. This is a 3 burner changu changu moto stove.

Three burner changu changu moto stove

We will tell you more about these stoves another day. Ripple Africa helps support this clinic.

The clinic or dispensary

The hospital is hours away from here, so the clinic is very important. Ripple Africa also supports and encourages reforestation. These little black bags of dirt will have tree seedlings inside and will be planted when they are big enough to grow outside.

Bags of dirt to plant tree seedlings

One of the main functions of Ripple Africa is to improve the education. Many schools receive help from Ripple Africa.

Children in uniforms entering school

We will show you more about the schools another day. Today this duck wants to give you a glimpse of what Ripple Africa does, and what we will be doing for the next two weeks. The slogan for Ripple Africa is “giving a hand up, not a hand out.” For more information about Ripple Africa, visit http://www.RippleAfrica.org There is no better way to end our first day on Lake Malawi.

Full moon rising over Lake Malawi

We love the full moon rising over the lake. Without electricity, the skies here are so beautiful.

We had a birthday this week. JB Duck’s dad had a birthday Wednesday. His two wiener dogs (or dachshunds) wore party hats for the celebration.

Frank with her party hat

Hickory with his party hat

The moon also celebrated the birthday. Early in the morning, just before sunrise we saw the blood moon. We were outside at 4:45 a.m. looking at the Blood Moon. But, mom’s photos were terrible.

Blood Moon photo from internet

This photo was on the internet, but it is what we saw early Wednesday morning. Blood Moon is the name for the lunar eclipse where the light and shadows caused the moon to look red. Then Wednesday night, we admired the full moon.